How to put a password on a PDF

Bank statements, ID copies, medical reports, salary slips. Before you email something like that, it is worth locking it. A password means that even if the email goes to the wrong person, they cannot read the file.

Steps

1. Open Protect PDF.
2. Choose your PDF.
3. Type a password. Type it again in the second box.
4. Press Protect file.
5. Download the new file. It will end with "-protected".

The lock is added on your own device. Your file and your password are not sent to Luvkaam. The lock uses standard AES-256 encryption.

Choosing a good password

• Use at least 8 characters. Longer is better. A few unrelated words in a row, like "tea-monsoon-ladder-47", is strong and easy to remember.
• Do not use your name, your phone number or your birth date. They are the first things anyone tries.
• Do not use the same password as your email or bank.

Share the password separately

If you send the PDF by email and the password in the same email, the lock does nothing. Send the password by another route, such as a phone call or a message on another app.

If you forget the password

We cannot recover it. Nobody can. That is how real encryption works. Keep the original unlocked file in a safe place, or write the password somewhere you trust, such as a password manager.

The file already has a password

You will see a message that it already has a password. To set a new one, first remove the old one with Unlock PDF, then protect it again.

Check that it worked

Open the new file. It should ask for the password before it shows anything. If it opens without asking, something went wrong, so do not send it. Try again.

Is a password enough?

For everyday documents, yes. It stops casual snooping and mistakes. For anything extremely sensitive, also think about who really needs the file, and how it is delivered.